Hello. First time poster here - nice to virtually meet you all!
I came across this small pipe at a local bric-a-brac shop in Brighton, UK, among a selection of largely unremarkable pipes. I'm relatively new to pipe smoking but just so happened to read an article about Barling's about 2 weeks ago and could just about make out the words "Barling's Make" stamped on the visible side of the stummel.
I returned to the shop earlier today and asked for a closer look: the pipe is small at about 4 1/2" - not much larger than my Big Ben Ranger, and has the "Barling's Make" curved logo on one side, and "John Cotton" stamped on the reverse. There appears to be some stamping on the underside but it's extremely faint and blends in with the grain to the point of illegibility (I'm still not certain if my mind's playing tricks on me and there's no base stamping at all). The stem doesn't appear to have any markings and seems to be made of a hard rubber, noticeably different in texture than all my other pipes.
From some cursory researching the brand stamping seems to indicate that this is a pre-transition pipe from the "family era" and, due to the lack of shape or size markings, probably pre-WW2. John Cotton was apparently a Scottish tobacconists with a presence in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Please correct me if any of this is wrong.
I've not seen any other examples that resembles this shape - it reminds me of a ducks head - and haven't seen anything made by Barling's that would match the dimensions of a pocket pipe. Does anyone have any further information about it? Is anyone able to authenticate it? It certainly seems to be made from a nice piece of briar.
Thanks very much in advance.
I came across this small pipe at a local bric-a-brac shop in Brighton, UK, among a selection of largely unremarkable pipes. I'm relatively new to pipe smoking but just so happened to read an article about Barling's about 2 weeks ago and could just about make out the words "Barling's Make" stamped on the visible side of the stummel.
I returned to the shop earlier today and asked for a closer look: the pipe is small at about 4 1/2" - not much larger than my Big Ben Ranger, and has the "Barling's Make" curved logo on one side, and "John Cotton" stamped on the reverse. There appears to be some stamping on the underside but it's extremely faint and blends in with the grain to the point of illegibility (I'm still not certain if my mind's playing tricks on me and there's no base stamping at all). The stem doesn't appear to have any markings and seems to be made of a hard rubber, noticeably different in texture than all my other pipes.
From some cursory researching the brand stamping seems to indicate that this is a pre-transition pipe from the "family era" and, due to the lack of shape or size markings, probably pre-WW2. John Cotton was apparently a Scottish tobacconists with a presence in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Please correct me if any of this is wrong.
I've not seen any other examples that resembles this shape - it reminds me of a ducks head - and haven't seen anything made by Barling's that would match the dimensions of a pocket pipe. Does anyone have any further information about it? Is anyone able to authenticate it? It certainly seems to be made from a nice piece of briar.
Thanks very much in advance.
